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DANISH BLACK-HEADED GULL IN RIBCHESTER

Black-headed Gull, White V03S, ringed in Denmark in 2016 (Mike Watson).

BLACK-HEADED IS OFTEN THE COMMONEST BIRD IN RIBCHESTER in winter on my BTO BirdTrack counts. But where do they come from? Lee Parnell’s sighting in December 2020 of a bird colour-ringed in Zagreb, Croatia gave a clue that not all of them are from hereabouts. You could easily be forgiven for thinking they are, as Belmont Reservoir, home to the UK’s largest colony of them (11,500 pairs in 2020!), is only 15 miles away. So when Alexander I and saw a bird stood on the roof of his school on 1 March that bore a ring, White V03S, we were keen to find out where it had come from. Well it was a nice surprise to discover it was not a local breeding bird at all, in fact it was ringed as a chick at a colony on an island off the coast of Denmark, over 900km away! It was also interesting to discover that this is the first reported sighting of it since it was ringed in 2016, almost 5 years ago, on a tiny island of the Hirsholmene group off the northeast tip of Denmark. There are about 3,000 Black-headed Gulls on this island, which is also home to 1,000 Sandwich Terns and is a RAMSAR site.

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THROW IN THE OWL

A Barn Owl ready to pounce in Ribchester CLICK ON IMAGE FOR LIGHTBOX

EVERYONE LOVES OWLS RIGHT? We are lucky to have several pairs of Barn Owls breeding around Ribchester and while it still gets dark quite early it’s possible to see one before teatime at the moment. This particular owl is pretty much bombproof and doesn’t seem to be too worried by the many folks out for a walk when it emerges from its day roosting spot to go out hunting. I called in to see it again, giving a small boost to my March local patch list that started today. Mediterranean Gull excitement continued with a pair of adults with solid black hoods of breeding plumage on the fields along the lane to Boat House. They were quite lively and appeared to be courting, calling frequently but they didn’t linger too long after I first saw them as the 400 or so Black-headed Gulls attracted to the slurry spreading operation dispersed towards sunset. Again a Common Buzzard was also attracted to the slurry. I am thinking it has learnt that the slurry brings worms to the surface rather than trying to hunt gulls? Earlier in the afternoon a 3CY Great Black-backed Gull was feeding on the carcass of a dead sheep opposite the rectory, one of two ewes that have died there in the last couple of days. A Goldcrest was still singing at dusk and the Fieldfare flock was still around Lower Barn Farm, joined with a hundred or so starlings on a cold evening with a stiff southeasterly wind. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky but instead a dull brown haze caused by crappy quality, continental air across the eastern skyline.

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MEDITERRANEAN GULL

Another adult Mediterranean Gull, this time over Red Bank, Ribchester CLICK IMAGE FOR LIGHTBOX.

MED GULL STOLE THE SHOW AGAIN on a glorious springlike day. The valley was full of bird song even after a frost overnight. Blackbird, Song Thrush, Dunnock, Chaffinch, Wren and Great, Blue and Coal Tits were all adding to the chorus. However, ever ungrateful, I had just complained that there was hardly any movement today (Black-headed Gull didn’t even reach three figures and Common Gull was down to its usual three or four instead of yesterday’s 33) when a small flock of gulls appeared ahead of me at Red Bank. I could see one was a Common Gull so why not photograph it? It would look great against a clear blue sky. As I was lining it up I noticed the others were Black-headed Gulls but the fourth bird was…BAM! An adult Mediterranean Gull with a half-black hood. I had plenty of time to lock onto it as it came past me on the top of the small hill, not far above eye level. You can see from my other mostly poor Med Gull photos from Rib that they do not always co-operate, and/or I have not always been ready in time/had the correct settings dialled in etc. They are very much a feature of the valley at the moment, Bill Aspin had five at Brockholes yesterday afternoon and Paul Holt also had five feeding in the show field at Salesbury late this morning. We had a walk along there in the afternoon but they were all gone by then. It makes me laugh that Mediterranean Gull isn’t really a typical gull of the Mediterranean in the same way that Yellow-legged and Audouin’s Gulls are and it’s scientific name actually means Black-headed Gull! Meanwhile Black-headed Gull has a brown head and a scientific name that means Laughing Gull! And so it goes on, what a mess!

The rest of the birding around the village was mostly things that have been around for a while now. Lapwings exceeded 40 again, with several displaying pairs. Curlews were singing their hearts out again but didn’t break double figures today, all presumably local breeding birds now. Oystercatcher has dwindled to only 15 (most have probably gone upstream to breed now) but one of the wintering Little Grebes was still at Red Bank. Fieldfares had increased to 62 and walking the fields north of Red Bank I found a flock of 10 Redwings near Eatoughs. However, the two other best sightings were a Peregrine on one of the pylons (probably the same youngster, which has been around for a couple of months) and four Teal on one of the hidden shooting ponds. Ha! They are not on it now and are hopefully somewhere safe instead. Interestingly an adult Great Black-backed Gull was hanging aound the sheep up here this morning, maybe it knows that some tasty afterbirth is on the way soon? I do not see many mammals around Ribchester but Brown Hares are particularly conspicuous at the moment, with 6 seen today. So February ended on 72 bird species, one ahead of January but more significantly my Ribchester patch year list moved up to 76 and February is now four clear at the top of the all time chart with 77. Probably just a product of the 12 BTO BirdTrack walks I did this month.

Common Buzzard (adult) over Eatoughs on a bright sunny morning.

Feel the power! Another pylon Peregrine.

Can you stand another Med Gull?

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WELCOME BACK TO THE FELL!

A ‘grey male’ Hen Harrier powers north across the fell in the late afternoon sunshine CLICK ON IMAGE FOR LIGHTBOX

WHAT A WELCOME BACK TO GANNOW FELL! A lovely walk in the evening sunhine with Phil in ‘High Altitude Ribchester’ was further lit up by a grey male Hen Harrier (we didn’t see it well enough to rule out a 3CY bird - thanks to my ID guru Pete Morris). It appeared over the main bog and simply flew north towards Bowland without changing course. Although they do not breed far away Hen Harriers are rare on Longridge Fell and never seem to hang around even though it looks like they ought to! Also here raven, stonechat and Red Grouse were all new for the year. This is the highest I’ve been in the valley so far but it is still less than 3 miles from home. It was also lovely to hear both skylark and curlew singing here too this afternoon and some of the grouse were quite bold, with inflated red combs and lots of clucking display flights. As I got out of the car back at home a pair of curlews flew over there too, I am lucky to live somewhere this happens!

I wasn’t expecting this male Red Grouse to fly onto a wall in front of me! Err Willow Ptarmigan. No chance of me getting used to that name!

My morning walk around the village was also quite productive after a cold start. There was a definite push of gulls upstream with 33 Common Gulls being the most I’ve seen here in a morning. Black-headed Gulls exceeded 500 and there were a few Lesser Black-backed Gulls, newly returned from points south. A couple of Mediterranean Gulls flew east among the Black-headeds. Their call reminds me of Frankie Howerd ‘s ‘Ooh’ as in ‘Ooh Matron!’ . Curlews were in double figures again with several singing in the fields around the village and lapwings were also very active, songflighting along the lane to Lower Barn Farm. It is so uplifting to have them back again! Groups of insanely noisy oystercatchers chased each other at the river, where there are now three pairs of Stock Doves which appear to all be squabbling over squatting rights to the stone barn of Waterside Farm. There was still a small flock of Fieldfares along the lane today but no Redwings again, they pushed off in the cold weather and have not returned. There may stil be a few hanging on in the woods but I didn’t see any. The day-roosting Tawny Owl I have been watching lately was back on its usual perch deep in ivy and a few other interesting birds like bullfinch and Little Grebe helped me over the 50 species mark. February now stands at 75, the highest total of any month so far, partly thanks to Phil’s Black-tailed Godwit in the week!

The regular Tawny Owl could be bothered to look at me today! Well, squint at least.

A (Northern) Lapwing in display flight, with club-shaped wings spread and whirring through the air. We’ere lucky to still be able to hear its lovely song in Rib!

One of today’s Med Gulls, its black hood still far from complete.

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